Bravvion
Roy.
Bravvion
Roy.
Baylor
"Roy is the rare Day 3 pick whose value was never in doubt and whose ceiling was never in question either — a nose tackle who does one thing well and nothing else at all."Pre-draft read
Roy is a 330-pound nose tackle who plays with a wide base and heavy hands, and his value starts with the ability to hold a double team without giving ground. He plants, absorbs, and forces the center and guard to stay on him long enough for the linebackers behind him to run clean. In Baylor's front he was the anchor who made everyone else's job smaller.
The surprise is the movement. For a man that size he fires off low and has real short-area burst on slant and twist calls, which is where his senior-year production came from. He is not a pass rusher in the conventional sense — there is no counter plan once the first move fails — but he collapses the pocket by walking blockers backward.
Two-gap odd front that wants a true nose tackle to anchor over the center on early downs
Year 1 rotational early-down nose in a heavy defensive line rotation; ceiling is a starting run-down anchor who comes off the field on third down.
An attacking one-gap front that asks its interior linemen to penetrate gaps upfield and win one-on-one pass rushes on passing downs.
Best of Baylor Football 2019: Bravvion Roy
Baylor's own senior-season cutup, the year he posted 13.0 tackles for loss and made first-team All-Big 12.
Bravvion Roy vs Oklahoma 2019
A full-game study against the Big 12's best offensive line, the cleanest test of his anchor.
Bravvion Roy vs Texas (2019)
Rivalry-game reps showing the low get-off and the short-yardage value that defined his evaluation.
Roy was a four-year Baylor defensive tackle who broke out at exactly the right time. He barely played as a freshman, logged rotational snaps in 2017 and 2018, then exploded as a senior with 61 tackles, 13.0 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in 14 games, earning first-team All-Big 12 honors on a Baylor team that reached the Sugar Bowl. His career line finished at 48 games, 133 tackles, 19.0 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks, with roughly half of everything coming in that final year.
The football identity was unambiguous: a 6-foot-1, 330-pound two-gap nose who was at his best in short yardage and on early downs. The senior disruption was real but also came from a scheme that turned him loose on slants, and evaluators wanted to know how much of it would translate when the blockers got better and the calls got simpler. He played almost exclusively in a rotation, never a full workload.
Boards had him as a sixth-round run-stuffer with one plus trait and a hard snap ceiling. The fit made itself: Carolina hired Matt Rhule, Roy's Baylor head coach, that offseason, and the Panthers took the nose tackle their new staff already knew at 184.
- 01
Anchor at the point
a 330-pound base that holds double teams and keeps centers and guards occupied so the linebackers behind him stay clean.
- 02
Short-yardage value
he was Baylor's answer on third-and-one and goal line, where his mass and pad level made interior runs go nowhere.
- 03
Senior-year disruption
13.0 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in 2019, first-team All-Big 12, real production from a two-gap body type.
- 04
Get-off for his size
he fires low out of his stance and has enough short-area burst to win slant and twist calls before the block sets.
- 05
Scheme familiarity
three seasons in Matt Rhule's program gave him a head start on technique, terminology and expectations at the next level.
- 01
No pass-rush plan
the bull rush is the entire menu, and once a center absorbs the first surge he has no counter or hand technique to fall back on.
- 02
One-year production
three quiet seasons preceded the breakout, which left real questions about how much was player and how much was scheme and rotation.
- 03
Snap count ceiling
at 330 pounds with a short frame he is a 25-snap player who needs a heavy rotation behind him to stay effective.
- 04
Limited range
he does not chase, and anything outside the tackle box or on the back side is simply not part of his defensive contribution.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Baylor | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | Baylor | 12 | 31 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Baylor | 13 | 34 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Baylor | 14 | 61 | 5.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Career | — | 48 | 133 | 7.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Sports-Reference season lines with bowl games included; the four seasons sum exactly to the 48-game, 133-tackle, 19.0-TFL, 7.5-sack career total, and the 19.0 and 7.5 figures match Baylor's own draft-day release. Season starts are not published, so none are carried.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Heavy rotational interior body who logs real snaps on early downs and bounces between rosters after his first contract.
Massive early-down nose who becomes a legitimate run-defense starter while never contributing as a pass rusher.
Space-eating nose whose size alone keeps him employed but who never earns a consistent defensive role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Roy got on the field right away for the coach who drafted him. He played 15 games as a rookie in 2020 with nine starts, recording 27 tackles and the only sack of his NFL career. In 2021 he appeared in all 17 games with two starts and 23 tackles, and in 2022 he played 13 games with four starts and 17 tackles, adding three passes defensed and an interception off Lamar Jackson — the signature play of his career. Carolina released him before the 2023 season. He spent training camp with Chicago, was waived in the final cuts, signed to Baltimore's practice squad without appearing in a game, and the Ravens waived him in May 2024. His entire NFL on-field résumé is 45 games, 15 starts and 1,959 defensive snaps, all in Carolina.
In hindsight this was a fair sixth-round return and a cautionary note about drafting familiarity. Roy gave Carolina three seasons of legitimate rotational nose work and did the job he was drafted to do, which is more than most picks at 184 deliver. But the ceiling was exactly where the tape said it was — no pass-rush development, no growth beyond early downs — and when Rhule was fired the roster spot went with him. Useful, replaceable, and gone from the league before his fifth season.